Wurttemberg Stamps

Wurttemberg A Brief History - 1851-1923

Old Castle, StuttgartFrom: Wikipedia

Wurttemberg stamps, in many ways, parallel those of their
neighbor Bavaria. The early stamps of Wurttemberg, while very simple in
design, offer many opportunities for the philatelic specialist.

Wurttemberg had existed as a Duchy, in one form or
another, since the 13th Century, but the state did not become a Kingdom
until the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, when the former Holy Roman
Empire was broken up into numerous kingdoms.

The Kingdom of Wurttemberg existed from 1806 to 1918. The royal coat of arms is shown in the image at the right.

King Wilhelm I, who reigned from 1816-1864, took up
the task of implementing a constitution for the young kingdom. The new
constitution, passed in 1819, remained in effect until 1918. A drawing
of King Wilhelm I is shown at the left.

For
the most part, the reign of Wilhelm I was marked by peace and
tranquility. Great attention was paid to improving education,
agriculture, manufacturing infrastructure, and monetary reform for the
kingdom. Extensive development of the railway systems of Wurttemberg,
during the reign of Wilhelm I, contributed greatly to trade with other
Kingdoms and enabled the Wurttemberg economy to thrive.

During
1851, Wurttemberg liberated itself from the postal administration of
Thurn and Taxis, and Wurttemberg stamps, featuring an ornate frame, with
the denomination over a diamond shaped background, were issued. Later,
in 1857, yet another definitive series of Wurttemberg stamps, featuring
the royal coat of arms, were issued, and these would continue in use
until the end of 1868.

In July of 1864, King Wilhelm I died, and his son,
Karl, came to the throne. An old portrait of King Karl I is shown at
the right. Karl I ruled from 1864 to 1891.

In
the duel between Austria and Prussia, for the control of the Germanic
regions of Europe, Wilhelm I had taken the Austrian side. In 1866,
Wurttemberg took up arms on behalf of Austria, in the Austro-Prussian
War. Prussia then occupied the northern part of Wurttemberg, and a
peace treaty was negotiated in August 1866. Wurttemberg paid Prussia an
indemnity of eight million Gulden and agreed to an alliance with her
conqueror.

In 1870, the Franco-Prussian war
began. Though Wurttemberg maintained an antagonistic attitude towards
Prussia, the kingdom shared in the national enthusiasm which swept over
Germanic kingdoms, and its troops took an active part in Prussian
operations during the war.

In 1871
Wurttemberg became a member of the new German Empire. Though they were a
client kingdom within the Empire, Wurttemberg retained control of her
own postal services, telegraphs, and railways.

In
1869, when most of the Germanic kingdoms, with the exception of
Bavaria, were handing their postal systems over to that of the North
German Postal Union and then that of the German Empire, a new definitive
series of Wurttemberg stamps was issued. They would continue in use
until after 1900, and the Official Wurttemberg stamps would continue in
use until the 1920's.

Though Karl I was
married, he had no children. He and Queen Olga spent very little time
together. It has been speculated that he was homosexual, and his long
associations with male companions, during his reign, could have
contributed to the absence of an heir. Karl I died at Stuttgart in
October of 1891, and he was succeeded as King of Wurttemberg by his
sister's son, Wilhelm. King Karl I and Queen Olga are buried in the Old
Castle in Stuttgart, shown at the top of this page.

King Wilhelm II, shown in an old portrait at the left,
reigned from 1891 to 1918. Despite living in a landlocked kingdom,
William II was a ship enthusiast. He had a vision of a German fleet
reaching deep into the country, through its rivers. The king was
instrumental in the establishment of the Royal Yacht Club of Wurttemberg
in 1911 on Lake Constance.

In 1918, Wilhelm
I was deposed from the throne, along with the other German rulers.
Considered to be a popular monarch, he was bitter to find he received
less support than he had anticipated. He had the habit of walking his
two dogs in public parks in Stuttgart, without bodyguards, being greeted
by his subjects with a simple Herr König. Wilhelm finally abdicated on
November 30, 1918.

As Germany underwent
violent revolution near the end of World War I, the Kingdom of
Wurttemberg transformed from a monarchy to a democratic republic
peacefully, and its borders and internal administration remained
unchanged. Wurttemberg became a member state of the Weimar Republic in
1922, and about a year after that, the stamps of Wurttemberg were
replaced by those of Germany.

Despite the
many financial crises that affected Germany during the 1920's, the
economic development of Wurttemberg proceeded better than in many other
German states and its capital of Stuttgart became a regional center of
finance and culture.

In 1922, the royal coat of arms of Wurttemberg was replaced with a new one, as shown at the right. Part of the new coat of arms was adopted as a trademark by a local automobile company .... Porsche!

NOTE

I
realize that Württemberg is correctly spelled, in German, with an
umlaut over the "u". Unfortunately, the use of special characters, with
the keyword analysis tool provided by my service provider, is not
allowed.

My seed-word for this
page is "Wurttemberg stamps". Rather than just remove the umlauts from
the seed-words and leave the other ones, I have removed them from all
occurrences of the word Württemberg on this page, for uniformity. This
will be the case for all the other Württemberg pages in this section, as
well.